My morning routine of meditation, reading, then bridge is working well. I’m about halfway through Kelsey’s Killing Defence at Bridge. It’s really an incredible book. I played a few robot tournaments, with extra focus on my counting!
Greg was out of town this week, so our practice was limited to Cuebids.
I continued my review of the Team Trials this week. There were a few hands I found pretty interesting. It’s incredible to be able to compare your judgment to 15 top-level players. Man, I love the Trials! And I love the LoveBridge system we use.
First seat none vulnerable you pick up ♠ 2 ♥ — ♦ KQJ642 ♣ JT9874. What’s your plan?
I had no intention of defending lower than the 5-level on this hand, so I wanted to put maximum pressure on immediately. We play a 4NT opening bid as asking for specific aces, so I couldn’t show both suits at once. I opened 4♦, planning to compete to 5♣ over 4M.
Things proceeded fairly well for me:
They didn’t go as well for Brad Moss at the other table, who chose to pass, and ended up never taking a bid(!):
You can scroll through all of the tables that played this hand here. I was the only one who opened 4♦; everyone else either passed or opened 3♦. I still think 4♦ is right, but I’m curious to hear what you all think.
Here’s another one where Brad and I took different positions. This one also worked out well for me, but that certainly doesn’t mean I was right.
Both vulnerable, you hold ♠ 76 ♥ KJ63 ♦ QJ8 ♣ 9862
With no opposition bidding, the auction begins:
2♣ 2♦ 2♠ 2NT 3♣ ?
You have a club fit and 7 HCP, but they’re all in partner’s short suits. I can see a good case for raising clubs, taking a preference to spades, or bidding 3NT. Of the 16 tables in play, 9 started the auction this way. (A few played Precision, a couple opened the north hand 1♠.) A couple of players surprised me with a 3♥ bid. I guess you’ve denied 5 good hearts with 2NT. But I don’t understand making partner fret about a diamond stopper if you’re aiming towards 3NT.
The rest made one of the three bids on my radar. I chose 4♣ and got to 6♣; Brad chose 3♠ and was raised to 4♠.
6♣ was a great contract and we won 12 IMPs. (There were a lot of 12-IMP swings on this board!)
Was my judgment better than Brad’s on these boards, or did they just work out well for me? It’s too small a sample size to say anything definitively, and he’s a much better and more experienced player than I am, so I default to assuming he’s right and I got lucky. These hard decisions are often what determine the outcome of matches.
I’m really loving this VuGraph review. I can’t recommend it highly enough!
Have a great week!